What are you excited about in the wine world?

WINE TALK
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I get the daily Wine Industry Network news blasts and they are getting depressing - sluggish sales, layoffs, downsizing, tariffs, shuttering tasting rooms, - malaise pervades the industry. The silver lining is that I love California Syrah and apparently no one else does, so I can buy plenty of good stuff for pennies on the secondary market.

Can anyone cheer me up? What are you excited about in the wine world, now and into the future? Styles, regions, specific projects, people, market shifts, whatever it may be.

I’ll go first: I got into the wine business in large part because of the breadth of what wine has to offer, so I am excited by the continued diversification of California vineyards. People are ripping out Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to plant Vermentino and Albariño; Italian varieties are on the rise; white blends are providing new homes for interesting varieties; Mourvèdre and Gewürztraminer seem to actually be in demand; and folks like Hardy Wallace and Angela Osborne continue to show that red wines can be driven by aromatics, not just texture.

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I’m excited about 99% of the wines currently in my cellar, continuing to try them in the days to come (enjoying my first of the '23 Oregon PNs as I type), and continuing to add to the cellar to keep the excitement going into the foreseeable future. I’m also excited to once again, in the not-too-distant future, to be sharing some glasses of wine with my adult daughter (she stopped all alcohol over a year ago and hasn’t yet resumed drinking alcohol post-January birth of their daughter). And, I’m excited that my weather here is once again coming around to temps that allow for evening hours on my back patio, enjoying food and wine. :wine_glass:

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I am definitely on a Syrah kick. Andremily is the #2 producer in my collection now. I’ve been quietly adding a couple cases of Aussie Shiraz a year.

I’m excited to see what Ketan is going to produce up at Jasud each vintage.

I’m excited about Brunello, I don’t have a ton yet but have been spot buying here and there and it helps that I’ve visited and tasted twice in Montalcino the last couple years.

And damn it @Robert_Dentice has me excited about Riesling. I’ve had some excellent tastings in Germany and can’t wait to go back, taste the new vintage and bring home more wine.

On the flip side, sad to see Mike Officer retire and Carlisle go away. I hope all those old vine Zinfandel vineyards find buyers for their fruit and keep going.

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Very niche interest but CA and OR small producers’ bubbles, especially those focus on terroir expression. I’m talking under 200 cases per bottling. I’m very big on support local, small businesses and those small sparkling projects I follow convinced me to not buy champagne and cava from the other side of the world. It’s easier to build connections with the winemakers and vintners here when you barge into their small projects, ask very nerdy questions and take a case home.

Wenzlau was probably the only grower that made zero dosage sparkling wine with very long lees aging time bubbles in Sta. Rita Hills. Their last release aged the BdN for 7Y and BdB for 10Y, something that I haven’t found the equivalent in New World. Although I did not get a chance to visit the vineyard, Cindy gave me a tour of her winery, about how she befriended Cedric Bouchard and Rodolphe Peters, how Rodolphe sourced a 1940s Coquard press from Champagne for her, and Cindy gave me her winery baseball cap that was supposed to be her souvenirs for her retirement. From what she told, her vineyards are going to Etienne de Montille who partnered with Rodolphe at Racines. I’ll be visiting Racines in the future and from what I have tasted, their bubbles are world class albeit the single vineyard bottlings are priced astronomically high.

I don’t see myself getting an allocation for Ultramarine anytime soon but from the past vintages (except the recent 2019-2020 vintages) I drank from my friend’s cellar, with some age, they can go toe to toe with great grower champagne. In the mean time I came across Haliotide and Nicole. She’s making very unique sparkling wines that come from vineyards a stone throw away from the ocean, probably the craziest terroir I’ve ever seen. From my hazy memory, she told me her future wine comes from vineyards barely a mile away from the ocean in Davenport and San Simeon and those towns are COLD even in summer. Her wine program is still in its infancy but it’s very well made and I always get my full allocation.

Came across BXT on here, and beside making lovely bubbles, Tom was very willingly to answer my very nerdy questions regarding the process and variables in making sparkling wine. I remember when I made a question on this board about his wine, he tracked down my email and answered my question promptly with details, and that alone made me a follower. Very excited to see his 2023 vintage. I’ll drop by his winery when I’m in Napa for sure, always need fresh bubbles to wash the cabs away.

Didn’t know about Cabot until I came back from the Redwoods, otherwise I would have driven 3 hours roundtrip from Eureka and back up the truck to get his BdB. Dude’s bubbles literally has a lore behind it beside from being one of the best among few zero-dosage sparklers in CA. Great fruits, 6+ years lees aging and that’s why I’m pouring Cabot at every gathering. I’m looking forward to see what will his rosé going to look like in a few years, and I’ll be backing up the truck for such great QPR wine.

Goodfellow definitely got my attention despite their sparkling wine program is still very young. Vinous and slight reductive for my first bottles, despite the rapid bubble dissipation I found potential in Marcus’s wine. I’m convincing myself that everyone and their mamas is copying Côte de Blanc’s low atmospheric bottling hence ephemeral effervescence . I’ll revisit and try his new BdB and BdG sometimes this Fall when it’s no longer raining fire in Southern California.

I still need to visit more CA and especially OR wineries, there’s a world of bubbles up there that I haven’t touched. I’m a sucker for brut nature and extended tirage and I know many age sur lies up to 10 years in Oregon. Now if only I can persuade my boyfriend to skip vacationing at Amankora and let me get a U-haul full of extended tirage sparklers instead :face_with_open_eyes_and_hand_over_mouth:

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I’m late to the party, but this year will be my first time visiting some of the wineries/vineyards I buy from. Last year I was able to share a few glasses with a winemaker, Travis Allen from Kobayashi, but it was far removed from the actual winemaking.

Here in a few weeks I’m going to visit McMinnville and plan on tasting with Goodfellow and Patricia Green. We just started planning the couple of days we’ll spend in the area, but I’m getting really excited.

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I’m super excited about NFTs and wines in ampoules.

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On a more serious note, I’m excited, but patient, to see if, over time, good wines can come out of Quebec.

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I am excited about wines from more obscure US regions. I’ve had some really good Arizona and Colorado wines recently.

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I’m excited at lots of young winemakers in burgundy starting to make a lot of excellent wine!

I’m especially interested in those making wine outside of the traditional cote de nuits, especially in places like the cote de nuits villages such as Camille Thiriet.

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I am on the other end of all this. I am not in the business so I don’t really follow the troubles of wineries. I hate to see anyone lose their businesses and suffer any financial hardships, but frankly I don’t consider wineries any different from restaurants and any other small businesses in this regard. The reality is we live in a very competitive world and unfortunately not all businesses can succeed.

I am pretty content with the wines I have and am drinking. I am a senior with a pretty full wine cellar. That means I am getting to drink a lot of pretty mature wines that I bought a number of years ago when wine prices were much lower than they are today. So, in general, I am pretty excited about the wine world in that I am getting to drink great, mature wines from my cellar.

On the other hand, I miss the thrill of buying wines. I still purchase a little, but not nearly as much as I once did. I am starting to lose some track of what is happening new in the wine world - hard to go visit wineries when I know I won’t buy much. So, I miss some of that. Now that I don’t work anymore and have lots of time to visit wineries, I don’t do it as much anymore. I sometimes think of selling some wine and then ploughing some of the money back into buying wines from wineries I would like to visit. But, it seems silly to buy wines that would take a long time to mature.

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A few things, actually:

  1. Sparkling Wine - Grower champagne is booming and warmer temps seem to be helping development of really excellent pinot meunier. More generally, quality appears to be rising across a good number of producers, options are becoming increasingly available in the states, and we’ve had some really spectacular big house champagnes of late. Oregon is also really coming on with its sparkling wines, and as more producers fine balance, we’re going to see an explosion of exceptional quality offerings that I think will run similar to good grower champagne.

  2. Oregon and Sonoma Coast Chardonnay - I just love where chardonnay has gone over the past decade in Oregon and Sonoma Coast. Cooler climates, racy acidity, lower alcohol, but still expressive fruit. I’ve seen way more good wines that hit my chardonnay palate of late. It’s been great.

  3. Bordeaux - I know Bordeaux isn’t cool, but there have been a few developments that I think are pretty appealing. First, Parkerization is declining and Michel Rolland’s influence towards monotonal super oaky too-warm dried plum and fig wines is also declining. Frankly even Rolland wines are moving in style towards less oaky less hot wines. Second, the general quality of bordeaux wines and farming and winemaking in bordeaux appears just better than it once was. We have really solid quality across vintages, across producers, and across price points that I’ve never seen before. It doesn’t seem like consumers have to wait for a massive vintage. There are just really good wines and really good vintages seemingly every year. And third, that and a decrease in the status of bordeaux seems to be making Bordeaux a really nice QPR for really excellent wines that are frankly more approachable young than they used to be while still maintaining some nice freshness and without being too rich and jammy and oaky.

  4. DIAM - I had a corked 1982 Leoville Barton the other evening, which was depressing. Luckily shop traded it out for a clean bottle. Transition from use of cork to DIAM is, in my opinion, a no brainer and I love seeing an industry transition to DIAM. It’s been going on for a while, but it’s something I just love seeing and every time I get a corked bottle of something good I just die inside a little bit. I hope the industry continues to buy in. I think it’s cheaper than high quality cork at this point anyway!

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I agree with you on Bordeaux. Wineries are learning how to adapt to warmer climates. A few years ago, I tasted a 2009 Leoville Poyferre, which in my opinion was a pruny mess. Last fall, when visiting the winery, I tasted a 2015 from them and was surprised at how balanced and good the wine was. I was told by our tour guide that the weather in 2015 was similar to that in 2009 but that in the intervening years wineries had learned from the problems with a lot of 2009s and are now able to handle these types of vintages much better.

Also, in keeping with some of your points, I was told that Troplong Mondot, which was once the poster child for harvesting very late, is now harvesting much earlier to make fresher wines in current climate conditions.

I also saw while in Bordeaux all sorts of experiments in wine-making like use of amphoras and “eggs” (some wooden eggs and some concrete eggs.)

Seems like a lot of experimentation is going on in Bordeaux in both in farming and in winemaking and I agree with you that I think the wines are getting better. Very exciting.

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I’m excited that lesser known Rhone varieties are becoming more popular - Picpoul Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Counoise, Cinsault

I’m excited that consumers are still willing to search out smaller producers who truly believe in and love what they do

I’m excited that the sky is not falling for many of us - though the road ahead will be rocky.

And @Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r , hoping I’ll see you at the Rhone Rangers tasting in Sonoma in late June!!!

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I am very excited to have found Allen Winery. For so many years I have enjoyed Rochioli and William Selym Allen vineyard wines. Now a new couple are making great pinot from the grapes they own. Amazing pinot with a rare combination of depth and elegance.

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Did someone say California Syrah? I love the stuff, and have bought a ton of it. Mourvedre may be the most exciting red grape in California for me though, with Hardy’s stuff, along with Bedrock’s Ode to Lucien, which is another benchmark for me.

Having had an utterly delicious 2015 Idlewild Nebbiolo last night which, served blind, stood toe to toe with a very fine Ar Pe Pe bottling, I am once again excited about letting some of these California newcomers (say producers who have come on line since 2010 give or take) get a little more cellar age to reveal what’s there.

My cellar is beyond bursting, so not much buying, but picking away here and there. Now it’s the fun of exploring without having to whip out a credit card.

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I’m excited that winemakers are continuing to find old, sometimes ignored vines and grapes and brining them back to life to make interesting and exciting wines (e.g., Sandlands, Sabelli-Frisch). The opposite of samey fruit-and-oak-bombs or butter-and-vanilla bombs.

Also that natural farming practices are becoming more common year after year. It makes me happy to support a family winery or winemaker or vineyard owner that tends the land properly and, not coincidentally, makes interesting, delicious wine.

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Howard pretty much expressed my situation and feelings. I’ve had to face actuarial realities and trim significantly my purchases—I still have the intellectual curiosity but have to rein it in. Hard to do after 40+ years.

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Esp, when you have the time, knowledge and money to continue to explore. But, you also have the sense to cut way back.l

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I am excited that many winemakers the world over are making wines at reasonable prices that are worth cellaring. I’m excited about the proliferating number of grapes (often indigenous) that are deemed worthy of good winemaking. As a consumer, I continue to be excited about winemaking that is approached as a lifelong craft.

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@Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r Great thread!

What has me excited for the past 12 years (when we moved to Sonoma County) is the vast array of great winemakers, mainly in Sonoma County. These people are making a huge variety of excellent and just plain delicious wines. Virtually no new oak (Calluna uses a small amount) so the varieties taste just as they are intended to’

Our last 13 wines, all excellent:
Extradimensional, Grenache, Full King Crab White Blend, Mourvedre
Idlewild, Nebbiolo, Timorasso
RYME, Vermentino, Ruche
Comunita, Pinot Grigio, Refosco, Schioppettino
Jupiter Wine Co., Vermentino
Sandlands, Trousseau, Chenin Blanc
Calluna, Cuvee (Bordeaux Blend)

Seven producers, 13 different varieties and here’s the point. ALL were excellent! Best of all, these were the past seven producers, 13 wines. My next dozen wines could easily be another 6 producers and 12 more different varieties!

I Used to have a few varieties I would stock up on from France and Italy. I still buy some but the exceptional wines of Sonoma County producers has steered me in another direction and I could never go back!
Full Disclosure: Jupiter Wine Co is owned by my son Thomas and he is also the winemaker.

Tom

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